Love is a Must in Hero Generations

If you’re looking for something new on Facebook, you shouldn’t overlook Hero Generations. This charming turn-based adventure is something of a coming-of-age tale that happens all over again every ten minutes. Developed by XBOX Live veteran Scott Brodie, this is the first game under Heart Shaped Games and it’s off to a solid start.

The goal in Hero Generations makes sense to a budding adventurer. Gather as much fame as you can before you die. Fame can be earned by doing things like killing bad guys and completing quests, but your days are literally numbered as your lifespan is equal to the number of turns you get. Every move you make, every action you take reduces this number and when it’s reduced to zero, your game is over.

However, there happens to be a way to cheat death and it’s something organic life has always known. If you want to extend your legacy, you gotta have kids. In Hero Generations, finding a mate is a must and the only way to continue your game. Your hero must find this mate before his lifespan is up and once he does, his child will become the new adventurer. His items will be inherited as well as some of his traits by random selection. This child adventurer will start the process all over, gathering fame while growing older and looking for a mate of his own.

The world from generation to generation stays the same and changes made by one hero carries on to the next. For example, you can improve towns by building improvements nearby. These can be things like farms or barracks and each provides its own bonus. These improvements will last from one generation to the next, but they eventually fall into disrepair before needing rebuilt. Many things in the world have lifespans of their own like this and it creates this fascinating patchwork overlap as you play through generations of heroes.

As for the adventuring component of the game, there are a variety of things to do. The game map is set up on a grid, which is revealed as you travel. There are several things you can do to improve your character in your quest for fame. Some tiles on the map will give you more gold, some will have treasure chests with secrets inside and others will have bad guys to fight. Shops on the map will supply you with special items to help in battle while a quest location will give you a special task for a large fame bonus.

As said above, you can build improvements beside towns. There are four to choose from and each provides a different bonus. For example, a farm will provide gold, while a barracks will improve your strength for battle. Building several of a type around a town will upgrade the town to something special. Surrounding a town with farms will turn it into a ranch, which gives gold bonuses. Surrounding it with barracks will make it a fort, which can upgrade your character’s strength as well as give defensive bonuses against enemies invading that tile. A large part of your success is setting up these improvements as they continue into the next generation and can give your child a greater head start in the world.

A variety of quests can be discovered during the game and they are the best way to earn fame. Each world has a primary quest to kill a big bad guy. This fight is usually tough and it may take some multi-generational planning to take him down. There are usually a couple monster dens in each world where easier bosses live and each of these becomes a quest once discovered. Ancient treasures can be found on the map and these must be returned to a town before a monster steals them. The quests are relatively simple, but their variety and consistency work well for re-strategizing each time you start over with a new child.

Battle happens often in the game and the results are based on a quick dice roll. While this is somewhat random, the roll is based on the strengths of you and your opponent. The higher your strength, the better chance you have of rolling a higher number than the monster you’re fighting. Losing in battle will reduce your lifespan by a number of turns, but winning will reduce the lifespan of your opponent. Most monsters are killed through just one battle, but there are other bad guys who are living through a number of turns just like you. You may fight them while they’re young only to run into them in their sunset years to finally finish them off. It’s little timeline mechanics like this that make the game really interesting and special.

While the world stays the same from generation to generation, there is an option for a child who is bored with the world of his ancestors. Each world map has exit spots that can take you to a brand new world. The only caveat is that you can never get the old one back. Different worlds offer a little change up as they introduce new bad guys and switch around the locations of towns, quests and forests.

Fame is your ultimate score in the game, but it isn’t cumulative. Each hero is judged on his own merits and the goal of each time around is to get the most fame possible. Your best heroes are ranked against your friends on the game’s leaderboard. You don’t have to add friends deliberately as any Facebook friend who already plays the game will already appear in your list. This adds a light competitive component to the game.

Hero Generations is refreshing as it doesn’t blitz you with things to buy at every turn, but it does have options for people who want to support the game with Facebook credits. Whenever you create your next child, you pick random cards that determine that child’s bonuses. These can be money, strength, a longer lifespan or special traits. With Facebook credits, you can buy more card flips, which offer the chance to start with a much stronger child than you would through natural means. Facebook credits can also be used to buy special items from caravans that travel and sell things around the map. These items can be things like enhanced swords and shields to turn the tide of battle in your direction.

Hero Generations overwhelmingly succeeds in bringing a unique game to Facebook. The generational component is extremely clever and the layers it adds tell stories of their own on each playthrough. Even in it’s artistic simplicity, you get the feel of a world that lives and grows over time. It will be exciting to see how Scott Brodie develops the game as time goes on.